Re: Administrivia...

Please check what MK Raju, a well known management consultant, is doing
in Tamil Nadu. I believe he is doing a phenomenal job in improving the
quality of life at village level. Mr. Raju, a graduate of University of
Michigan in 1940s, held several senior management level positions and
received numerous awards at national level. He is still very active and
doing yeoman service to the society by making villages self sufficient.

I liked his model and it was presented to our faculty earlier this
year.

Vittal

----- Original Message -----
From: Mahendra K Sunkara <mahendra@louisville.edu>
Date: Monday, December 12, 2005 6:47 pm
Subject: Re: Administrivia...

>
> Dear Mahesh,
>
> The only programs that brought any of kind of community based
> development are the ones that promoted cleanliness and janmabhoomi in
> the past. Now there are no more. Now, the roads are filled with trash
> again compared to my visits over few years ago.
>
> I participated in Janmabhoomi programme through a school building
> construction. During this excercise, i saw some community involvement
> through educational committee and others. Now, it seems like that
> thereis no such thing. I am not feeling that the local communities are
> playing any kind of role in building their infrastructure. Now,
> everybody seems to be feeling exactly like the way they used to feel
> several years ago, i.e., pay and get your work done. So, bribes have
> come in to play at all levels. It is amazing to see how quickly the
> system can go backwards.
>
> Due to various reasons, Indian society never had community
> undertakings(even though there are several co-operative
> societies). In any case,
> Andhra is definetely going backwards in that sense of communities.
>
> In any case, we as a group could suggest a blueprint solution for
> one or
> two infrastructural problem then we will be doing the right thing. We
> definetely need a momentum on societal and communal awareness aspects
> (like u pointed) but need even better ways (incentives such as
> Janmabhoomi) in which communities are rewarded for implementing
> solutions according some sort of blueprint.
>
> We need a revolution (and agin through a widely publicized
> blueprint) on
> how the development should take place in terms of drinking water,
> livingconditions etc. Many towns and cities are what i consider as
> non-livable
> irrespective of the fact that the real estate prices are sky high.
>
> Poverty is a terrible thing to have in our country at this time
> after so
> much revolution has taken place in terms of education and
> communicationsetc. Industrial revolution seems to be the only
> answer and irigation can
> only help maintain the poverty. This is because several families have
> 1-2 acres of land. It seems like several govt. schemes seem to help
> maintain poverty. This is horrible under the disguise of socialistic
> schemes.
>
> I took a drive around cyberabad (it seems like a third city). This has
> been the most pleasant experience that i will cherish for a long time.
> One must go here atleast once just to see how development could take
> place..
> Mahendra
>
> Mahendra.
>
>
>
>
> Mahendra K. Sunkara, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
> http://www.cvd.louisville.edu
> University of Louisville
> Louisville, KY 40292 (use 40208 for fedex)
> (502) 852-1558(ph)
> (502) 852-6355(fax)
> 502-457-4178(cell)
> >>> mahesh.gorle@gmail.com 12/12/05 2:08 PM >>>
> Dear Mahendra,
> That must be a quite an interesting trip you are having there.
> I and most of our fellow members in the group understand the
> infrastructural
> deficiencies in India. You did articulate them in a preferential
> order.What I am little more interested to know from your
> experience is about
> the
> people at various places. How are the people contributing for their
> betterment as well as the fellow citizens.
> Irrespective of any economic groups, all seem to be struggling for
> existence. They seem to be more selfish and grab as much as they could
> like
> there is no tomorrow.
> I observed this in all walks of life. Please understand my point
> that I
> am
> not criticizing, but, feeling concerned. The society pool includes me
> and my
> friends and family too.
> In the end, I think that we should be doing some thing to educate
> peoplein
> their responsibility in the citizenry activities and add moral
> implications
> for things they do.
> We should be sending out the kids from the schools to make a better
> living
> with knowledge than just competing spirit to grab a bigger pie.
>
> Thanks,
> Mahesh
>
>
> On 12/12/05, Mahendra K Sunkara <mahendra@louisville.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear Chandu and others,
> >
> > I am currently travelling around India (villages in Andhra and
> Rajastan
> > etc..). I travelled to Jaipur from Delhi by car. The driver took
> me to
> > his house near Haryana/Rajastan border just to show his house.
> It was
> > around 7 pm. This village seemed very similar to our villages
> but with
> > an exception, i.e., the entire village was dark. He said that nobody
> has
> > electric connections. The only connections were the ones done
> illegally.
> > On the other hand, the haryana side seemed to be brightly lit
> and very
> > developed due to huge amount of industrial developments.
> >
> > I went to villages in Andhra as well. Well, the villages in Andhra
> seem
> > to be by far the most developed in terms of roads, electricity,
> TV. As
> > far as water supplies is concerned, every village has a different
> story
> > - Some villages near sea coast seem to have gotten salty underground
> > water until last year due to drought before. The rains during this
> year
> > seem to have made the underground water fresh. Other villages in
> other> parts were running out of underground water supplies. The
> rains again
> > seem to help. This seems to be the most important concern, i.e.,
> clean> water for drinking purposes seem to be long term
> infrastructuralconcern
> > throughout Andhra irrespective of the region. Now, the major cities
> seem
> > to be able to deal with this problem but the villages seem to
> suffer.>
> > What we should be really thinking is the following:
> >
> > What infrastructural developments should we be thinking about? For
> > example, think about the following:
> >
> > 1. Roads, electricity, communications (these seem to be OK for time
> > being except that we still need to improve the roads infrastructure,
> > communications through cell phone and TV seem to be by far the best
> > development).
> >
> > 2. Drinking water (this seems to vary most from a region to a
> region).> Needs a better solution.
> >
> > 3. Water for irrigation (This needs planning at Center, i.e.,
> linking> rivers and providing some sort of uniform policy across
> the regions).
> > Needs better solutions..The corporate farmers seem to be doing well
> > irrespective of the region. The small farmers cannot afford to live
> off
> > the farming irrespective of the incentives. The prices of things
> like> vegetables, cooking oil and other items seem to be so high
> that it is
> > just too difficult to manage.
> >
> > 4. Handling garbage, waster water treatment and watershed
> planning (to
> > avoid floods with rains) - There seem to be a lot of improvement in
> > cities like Hyd, Vizag but not existent in municipalities and
> > panchayats.
> >
> > 5. First responder facilities - This is almost non-existent
> except for
> > major cities.
> >
> > etc.. etc..
> >
> > I also had an interesting conversation with a guy that takes
> care of
> > USAID program in India. This program helps setup agri related
> policies
> > and businesses in India and he seemed to have a total negative
> feeling> towards current administration in AP regarding the
> infrastructural> vision for the state..
> >
> > I felt bad about the towns like Gudivada after looking at
> Vijayawada.> So, it is almost impossible to shrug off the regional
> imbalances until
> > we do systematic infrastructural improvements throughout
> corporations,> muncipalities and panchayats with one set of blue
> prints and that too
> > quickly. We all should be searching for solutions rather than
> bickering
> > over regions.
> >
> > If anybody has a solution or a suggestion on the infrastructural
> > improvement plans for any one of them then let us brainstorm and
> resolve
> > it and suggest it to the appropriate section of the government.
> I can
> > reach both YSR and CBN if needed.
> >
> > Mahendra.
> >
> >
> > Mahendra K. Sunkara, Ph.D.
> > Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
> > http://www.cvd.louisville.edu
> > University of Louisville
> > Louisville, KY 40292 (use 40208 for fedex)
> > (502) 852-1558(ph)
> > (502) 852-6355(fax)
> > 502-457-4178(cell)
> > >>> srchandu@gmail.com 12/12/05 9:46 AM >>>
> >
> > Folks,
> >
> > This weekend has seen some unfortunate and personally focussed
> > messages.
> > They are unfortunate as we wasted our intellectual bandwidth by
> > focussing on individuals and what they did or did not do.
> >
> > When anyone, more specifically one of our members, did some
> good, no
> > matter how big or small that deed is, we should commend him/her. I
> > think what Satish did during Tsunami disaster was commendable. The
> > spririt of helping others deserves our appreciation. There may
> be some
> > confusion about who should get the qudos. My thinking on this is,
> > should it matter?
> >
> > Even if there is some sense that there may be some exaggeration,
> does> it matter? Of all, this group is the least equipped to be
> the police.
> > Still, I have no problem expressing my appreciation to such
> > individuals, companies, groups or whoever. I hope the group sees the
> > merit of this stand. I strongly believe in the philosophy of
> appreciate
> > publicly and correct the mistakes in private, if any.
> >
> > The suggestions for corrections are best served if taken off
> line and
> > in a one on one fashion, especially when we know the individuals.
> >
> > I request all members to be judicious in their langauge and how they
> > put forward their arguments. We should either learn, teach or
> discuss> the merits for overall good. Other intentions should be
> kept private.
> >
> > As the moderator, I do have the right to employ my judgement and at
> > times I am likely to be off guard. I bank on your judgement equally.
> >
> > There are many issues of import that affect all us and our
> people. I
> > thank all of our members who spend their time thinking about them,
> > writing about them and reading them to put up spirited and
> constructive
> > arguments. These discussions have taught me a great deal and I hope
> you
> > did find some useful too.
> >
> > Thanks for hanging in there! Keep the discussions going!!
> >
> > Regards,
> > Chandu
> >
> >
> >
>